


Work to be done

by Lannakitty



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-27
Updated: 2010-06-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 07:13:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lannakitty/pseuds/Lannakitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It doesn't matter she doesn't want the job. She's got work to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Work to be done

**Author's Note:**

> Missing scene from First Strike, SGA Season 4

  
Dr. Keller efficiently orders her colleagues around.

_They're not her staff. As far as she's concerned, they're still Carson's. They were all hand-picked for this job by the Chief Medical Officer, who officially, is still Dr. Carson Beckett. At least until the powers–that-be pick someone else. Until that time, well, she'll do the best damned job she can. They all will, in part because of professional pride, part in tribute to the man who led them so well for so long ._

The gurney races along the corridor, Dr. Stephens at the head, her pushing from the back and watching her patient carefully. Lt. Mason has raced ahead on a slight limp, shoving debris aside to make way for them.

_Part of doing her damndest meant stepping in to help fill the void Carson's absence created. She doesn't want glory, or fame, or to try and replace her friend; doing that would be impossible. Carson was soft-spoken, but led the medical team with the proverbial velvet-wrapped iron fist. He'd be the first to scold them for falling into disarray because he wasn't there. So, she did what he would have done, and stepped up. Life went on. In the aftermath of the first time they'd lost someone, Carson had pulled them all aside for a staff meeting._

"Life goes on. It hurts like the devil, aye, but it continues just the same."

They make it into the infirmary and Keller is both relieved and sorry to find that hers is the most serious patient. They haven't lost anyone yet, and she is determined not to have a death on her watch. Especially not this one.

_Since that day when Carson first called them together, still shaken from their arrival and the subsequent chaos, team members had come and gone. They'd lost some people along the way, but death had had to fight damned hard for those souls. They'd lost some people to transfers and not everyone had returned after they'd reclaimed the city from the Asurans, but the medical staff had been relatively unscathed by Pegasus' hardships. Until that day._

They move her carefully onto a scanner and Keller is still worried. She's breathing on her own, but they're giving her oxygen anyway; Keller's still concerned about her sluggish response. She checks to make sure the backboard hasn't slipped during their rush down here, and finds it still secure. The scanner hums to life after what seems like an eternity. She steps back and watches.

_They'd grown complacent. However safe Atlantis might feel at times, it wasn't. The Ancients had left a lot of treasures, but had also left a lot of dangerous equipment the unwary might run afoul of. Death by exploding tumor. It was possibly the most lame, scifi-cliched, mundane, bizarre, and just plain crappy way to go. It was stupid. It highlighted just how unsafe they all really were. In the end, Dr. Watson was alive because Carson Beckett had been possibly crazy, but definitely brave. But that same crazy bravery was what killed him in the end. Keller had decided it was noble and fitting, because she couldn't stand the thought of him losing his life in a freak accident like Hewston and three others had._

The scanner's preliminary news isn't good. It could be worse, much worse in fact, but it isn't good just the same. She looks up as Ronon staggers in with the biggest piece of glass sticking out of his chest she thinks she's ever seen. She spares a glance at Stephens, who jumps up to assist the Satedan. Keller turns her attention back to Weir. She feels ill, because this is the expedition leader, her boss, and a woman she greatly respects. A woman who, in a rather prescient moment, said she trusted Keller with her life. She'll be damned before that trust is misplaced. They've already lost one very key member of this family, she sure as hell isn't going to allow the loss of another one. Carson would have her ass if she let it happen in his infirmary, besides. Her lips quirk briefly in a rueful smile as she thinks of him.

_"Time to get to work, lass"_ she can almost hear him say. The scanner completes its report and her mind is already working through how to fix the problem. The city shudders. She knows it cannot be good news, but she ignores it and tells everyone else to as well. They have work to do.


End file.
